Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

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Introduction

On the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin was written for the choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1997 and sets a beautiful poem by Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) about transformation – the ‘winged harbinger’ who ‘might shift his clothes, and be / A perfect man, as well as we’. This is perfect territory for MacMillan, whose setting for five-part choir and organ reflects the wings of the harbinger in his decorative progress as well as the divine peace in the slowness of its movements. The long-breathed phrases, the shifting lights of harmony, the warmly undulating murmurs of seeming approbation (echoed by the organ) which accompany ‘How good a God have we …’ lead to the climax of the poem: ‘Let us like ourselves make man, / And not from man the woman take, / But from the woman, man.’ Quiet Allelujahs are joined by a joyfully dancing single organ line which continues long after the voices have ceased – becoming gradually softer as it dances into eternity.

Recordings

'An intense, deeply felt interpretation, full of beautiful and affecting singing, with all the elements—string orchestra, featured violin, choir and s ...'This splendid new performance from Polyphony also conveys dignity, and a sense (hard to explain) that the suffering is, in some mysterious way, redem ...» More

Details

A winged harbinger, from bright heav’n flown,
Bespeaks a lodging room
For the mighty King of love,
The spotless structure of a virgin womb,
O’ershadow’d with the wings of the blest dove:
For he was travelling to earth,
But did desire to lay
By the way,
That he might shift his clothes, and be
A perfect man, as well as we.
How good a God have we, who, for our sake,
To save us from the burning lake,
Did change the order of creation;
At first he made
Man like himself in his own image; now
In the more blessed reparation
The heavens bow:
Eternity took the measure of a span,
And said,
“Let us like ourselves make man,
And not from man the woman take,
But from the woman, man.”
Allelujah! We adore
His name, whose goodness hath no store.
Allelujah!